Tata Motors Targets 20,000 Electric Cars a Month

Tata Motors has a demand problem it wants to fix by building more cars. The company is preparing to lift electric-car supplies to nearly 20,000 units a month over the next two to three months, after monthly supplies climbed from around 9,000 units in March and April to roughly 16,000 at present. Managing director and chief executive Shailesh Chandra laid out the target in the company's latest quarterly earnings discussion.

The reason is unmet orders, not empty showrooms. Tata says it's currently fulfilling only around 60 to 65 percent of demand for its electric cars, and dealer stock for the electric range is reportedly down to around ten days. That's lean for a manufacturer at Tata's scale, and it means buyers can face longer waits and thinner choice of colors and variants.

The sales base under the target is already large. Tata sold more than 47,000 electric vehicles in the July to September quarter, an increase of around 90 percent over the same period a year earlier, which works out to more than 15,600 a month on average. The company put its share of India's electric passenger-vehicle market at about 43 percent for the quarter, and electric vehicles accounted for roughly 8 percent of passenger-vehicle sales.

The range doing the work runs wide. It starts with the Tiago.ev and Punch.ev at the accessible end and runs through the Nexon.ev and Curvv.ev to the Harrier.ev and Sierra.ev. That spread reaches buyers with very different budgets, but it also complicates production, because different battery packs, motors and electronic components have to arrive at the factories in the right quantities.

Assembly space isn't the binding constraint, by the company's own account. Tata says its manufacturing capacity can shift between conventional and electric vehicles, and management is working with suppliers on around 26 important components to support the higher volumes. Power electronics, motors, controllers and wiring all have to arrive together, and a shortage of one part can hold up a finished car.

The target is a plan, not a result. Twenty thousand a month would be about 25 percent above the current supply level, and the two-to-three-month window is the company's stated aim from its earnings discussion, not a delivered figure. If Tata hits it, buyers should see better availability and shorter waits. If the component work lags, the 60 to 65 percent fulfillment figure is the number that tells the story.